The Queen's New Court

This year's alfalfas are fit for royalty The queen of forages isn't resting on her laurels. New alfalfa varieties for 2002 are packed with improvements such as higher leaf-to-stem ratios, improved digestibility and stronger pest resistance packages. Breeders have been emphasizing those traits for years and continue to make gains. A few new varieties also reflect one of the latest wrinkles in alfalfa

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This year's alfalfas are fit for royalty

The queen of forages isn't resting on her laurels. New alfalfa varieties for 2002 are packed with improvements such as higher leaf-to-stem ratios, improved digestibility and stronger pest resistance packages. Breeders have been emphasizing those traits for years and continue to make gains.

A few new varieties also reflect one of the latest wrinkles in alfalfa breeding: tolerance to wheel traffic.

The new varieties, along with some of their most important traits, are listed here and on the following pages. The information was provided by seed marketers.

Your state university probably has variety trial information to help facilitate your choices. Or, click onto the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference's Web site (www.naaic.org) and link to its alfalfa variety field trial results under the Information Resources title.